FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHEVRON - PAGE 3

NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd , the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is looking to buy a stake in US supermajor Chevron's $4.3 billion Block B gas project in Vietnam. Chevron, which holds 42.38 per cent in Blocks B and 48/95 in Malay-Tho Chu Basin of Vietnam, has called for expression of interests from international firms willing to farm-in (or buy stake), sources said. OVL is keen to take part or whole of the stake in the block which has 4 Trillion cubic feet of inplace reserves, of which 63 per cent can be recovered or produced.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO: Chevron Corp, the second-largest US oil company, said on Tuesday it expects to increase production 4 per cent this year while also cutting costs to match the sharp drop in oil prices. George Kirkland, executive vice president for global upstream and gas, said the company aims to cut its upstream base business costs 14 per cent this year, which would exclude one-off payments for concessions. "You have wells that get squeezed when prices come down to $30 to $40 per barrel ... We'll defer them," he said at the company's annual analyst meeting in New York.

US energy giant Chevron has in place policies and procedures that might have avoided the blowout that caused a massive oil spill in the US Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an interview with Chief Executive John Watson. "This incident was preventable," Watson told the Journal. Chevron has also opposed the deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster that has caused a huge oil spill, the Journal said.

NEW DELHI: US oil behemoth Chevron Corp today said it has bought Reliance Industries' 80 per cent stake in two oil blocks in Kurdistan region of Iraq for an undisclosed amount. RIL's exit from Rovi and Sarta onland blocks in northern Iraq is part of the company's overseas asset restructuring wherein it is cutting exposure in exploration blocks to focus on producing properties. The company had in 2007 paid a signing amount of USD 15.5-17.5 million to autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)

MUMBAI: Chevron's purchase of a 5% stake in RPL ? prior to its 2006 IPO ? with the option of picking up a further 24%, was hailed at the time as a relatively rare big-ticket investment by a western oil major in India. Three years on, it was Chevron's decision to exit RPL that provided the trigger for the merger. The 2006 agreement envisaged Chevron assisting RPL in getting into long-term crude contracts, assist with state-of-the-art refining technology and help find markets for processed crude in North America and Europe.

SILICON VALLEY: An Indian engineer, who was fired by her company after she complained of her senior's racist conduct, has been awarded $5.5 million by a San Francisco federal jury. The jury found Kiran Pande's former employer Chevron liable for wrongful termination and retaliation and ruled that she be given roughly USD three million for past and future economic losses, and $2.5 million in punitive damages. Pande, who is India-born and holds a Ph.D.

MUMBAI: Equities are likely to extend gains Monday as political worries recede with Samajwadi Party backing the Congress to secure a parliamentary majority if the Left withdraw support. Oil prices cooled down a bit Monday as Iran offered to negotiate on its nuclear drive hence reducing the tension in the middle-east. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, fell $1.56 to $143.73 per barrel from Thursday's close of $145.29. The rupee strengthened to 43.10/11 per dollar from Friday's close of 43.15/16 per dollar, taking cues from firm Asian markets.

MUMBAI:What is happening in Reliance Petroleum (RPL)?? a company that will start commercial operations only a year from now and is yet buzzing on the bourses? The company's market cap has already exceeded that of India's largest refiner Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) by over 25%. At Rs 69,980 crore ??the RPL market cap is over three times the combined market capital of HPCL and BPCL. That's not all. Even among private sector oil companies, in market cap terms, RPL is already about 10 times bigger than Essar Oil, though the later has already begun production.

NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation has moved five places to occupy the 21st position in the Patts Top 250 Global Energy Company ranking. The corporation, which is the only Indian firm to be featured amongst the top 25 energy companies worlwide, has also been ranked second in the sectoral listing of oil marketing and refining companies of the world, a company release said. Indian Oil is also among the top three entry companies in Asia in this listing followed by China's PetroChina (ranked 7)

NEW YORK: China's CNOOC said on Tuesday it has withdrawn its $18.5bn cash offer for Unocal, stating it considered raising its bid, and "would have done so, but for the political environment in the US". CNOOC's withdrawal frees the way for Chevron to clinch its $17.4bn bid for El Segundo, Calif-based Unocal. In a statement on Tuesday, the company said, "The unprecedented political opposition following announcement of our proposed transaction was regrettable and unjustified.